Professional Services - About our Speakers
Ahmed Nada
Practice Leader for Professional Services, Portland Group
Ahmed is the Practice Leader for Professional Services at Portland Group. His team has established an industry recognised Professional Services Management Process that is delivering value to major Australian organisations. Prior to this Ahmed worked in Strategy and Operations consulting and as a civil engineer.
Robert Halsall
Executive Category Manager, Commonwealth Bank
Executive Category Manager, Commonwealth Bank
Rob Halsall is the Executive Manager of the Category Management team, Group Procurement, within Group Corporate Services at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and was appointed to this role in May 2011. In this role, Rob is responsible for driving the strategic direction within the category management function in what is a category led model.
Rob has 17 years’ domestic and international procurement and supply chain experience within the Public sector, Chemicals, Aerospace, Automotive and Telecommunications, providing leadership in in category management, strategic sourcing and supply chain management.
Rob has an honours degree in Business Information Technology, a Masters in Procurement and attained MCIPS status in 2001 before becoming the youngest person to receive a Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (FCIPS) at the time he was awarded it in June 2011.
Rob has 17 years’ domestic and international procurement and supply chain experience within the Public sector, Chemicals, Aerospace, Automotive and Telecommunications, providing leadership in in category management, strategic sourcing and supply chain management.
Rob has an honours degree in Business Information Technology, a Masters in Procurement and attained MCIPS status in 2001 before becoming the youngest person to receive a Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (FCIPS) at the time he was awarded it in June 2011.
Tom Russell
Senior Sourcing Manager, Bendigo Bank
Tom Russell has worked in banking and funds management for fifteen years, negotiating contracts in both sales and sourcing.
He has managed vendors for both buyers and lead contractors, and now focuses on services. After one long contract negotiation, he published a paper on provider liability that has been used in universities in Australia and overseas to teach what clients should expect for contract breaches. In 2010, his writing on measuring results from sourcing was highly commended by judges in the CIPSA Essay Competition.
Brian Ambler
Partner, TressCox Lawyers
Partner, TressCox Lawyers
Brian Ambler has many years’ experience in Projects and Infrastructure. He provides services for government and private sector infrastructure projects from inception through to completion. A special emphasis is placed on advising government on the tendering process. His expertise covers works and maintenance contracts, performance based maintenance and service agreements, project management agreements, architect/consulting engineer’s agreements, BOOT projects, mediation, dispute resolution, arbitration and litigation of construction/engineering disputes.
He is highly regarded for his advice to clients on outsourcing infrastructure projects (with an emphasis on transport and water), drafting tender documentation, advising on tender evaluation methodologies and the probity aspects of the tender process including as probity adviser and auditor. Brian also has significant experience that will benefit clients from sitting on government tender evaluation committees and reviewing tenders for compliance and drafting evaluation committee reports to board level and negotiations for contracts with preferred tenderers.
Brian is a trained mediator with the Australian Commercial Disputes Centre and has acted on large mediations since the inception of mediation as a recognised form of dispute resolution in Australia.
Tetyana Wotton
Senior Associate, TressCox Lawyers
Senior Associate, TressCox Lawyers
Tetyana is highly regarded by clients for her expertise on high value and complex projects. As an experienced probity adviser, Tetyana acts on complicated procurement projects for the Commonwealth and State governments and private entities. She provides clients with strategic probity advice, reviews RFT documents, prepares probity plans and probity reports and facilitates probity team meetings. She also assists with tender evaluation plans, tender reports, and contract negotiations.
Tetyana is also an experienced public speaker and regularly presents on probity, procurement and contracting issues. As a core member of the TressCox training team for Tonkin Corporation, she is often called upon to deliver presentations to a range of government and non-government agencies. She also develops tailored training programs on contract law for a wide range of clients.
Extracting Value from Professional Services
Ahmed Nada
Practice Leader
Portland Group
Case Study: Buying and Managing Consultancy Services at the Commonwealth Bank
Robert Halsall
Executive Manager - Group Category Management, Group Corporate Services
Commonwealth Bank
“Professional Services: will we know value when we see it?” You can’t judge by cost alone
Tom Russell
Senior Sourcing Manager
Bendigo Bank
Supplier Perspective – how to engage with your suppliers to improve outcomes